So beautiful.
I wished they were real and tangible so I could catch them, hug them, and then tuck them into my pocket to hold on to forever.
“So we’ll really just have fun with it?” I raised a curious brow. “No expectations?”
“Yes. Just don’t get weird on me again.”
I laughed. “I promise I won’t.”
“Good.” He laid a kiss on my lips, and I sighed behind it.
Damn, I missed his lips. It’d been a solid week since I’d last felt them. Perfectly supple and full. He was a damn good kisser too. I laced my arms around the back of his neck, deepening the kiss.
“Oh, and also,” I said when our lips separated. “I think your mom might hate me.”
“She does not hate you. She is just protective.”
“But you noticed that on the plane, right? She didn’t act that way toward me at Aleesa’s party.”
“No, she did not. She tends to get hostile when she thinks my nannies are seeking more. Many in the past have tried it—wanting to get closer to me, clearly all for one thing.”
“You don’t think that about me, do you?”
“Absolutely not. You have been the most genuine of all of them.”
“Did you do anything with any of them?” I couldn’t help but ask. It was going to kill me not to know.
“Hell, no.”
“Swear.”
“I swear. You are the only one I have ever felt anything for. But even if our circumstances were different, I am certain we would have connected in some other way.”
“Aw. That’s a sweet way of looking at it.”
“Daddy!” Aleesa squealed from the living room. “iPad is dead!”
He let out a weary chuckle. “Let me get to her.” He placed another kiss on my lips, one that was so deep and passionate my toes curled in my sneakers. “You go ahead and freshen up. I will get her ready.”
“Okay.” I drew my bottom lip in, sinking my teeth into it.
I watched him make his way toward the door but was surprised when he stopped, twisted around again, and came back to me. He gathered my face in his large hands and brought his mouth down to kiss me one more time.
I melted in that moment like butter in a skillet. I gave in and kissed him back, laughing behind it.
“You’re much more romantic than I expected, Valdez,” I murmured when he let me go.
His thumb skimmed my bottom lip, and he wore a smirk that was too sexy for his own good. “There are a lot of things about me that are unexpected, amor. You just have to stick around long enough to see what they are.”
Twenty-Seven
Octavia
Dinner was impeccable, of course. I’d expected nothing less from one of the pickiest men I’d ever dealt with.
The picky man that I couldn’t stop looking at or thinking about.
Paola still gave me the cold shoulder or ignored me altogether. I didn’t know what the hell her problem was or why she was making sudden assumptions about me. Catalina, on the other hand, had no problem chatting me up and even shared some of her chocolate cake with me.
